Pope Francis honours the legacy of St Francis de Sales on the 400th anniversary of his death by calling on the Church to be outward looking, praising the saint’s far-sighted vision in perceiving that changing times were a great opportunity for preaching the Gospel.

Pope Francis marks the 400th anniversary of the death of St Francis de Sales with this Apostolic Letter:

"On this anniversary of the fourth centenary of his death, I have given much thought to the legacy of Saint Francis de Sales for our time. I find that his flexibility and his far-sighted vision have much to say to us. Partly by God’s gift and partly thanks to his own character, but also by his steady cultivation of lived experience, Francis perceived clearly that the times were changing. On his own, he might never have imagined that those changes represented so great an opportunity for the preaching of the Gospel. The word of God that he had loved from his youth now opened up before him new and unexpected horizons in a rapidly changing world. That same task awaits us in this, our own age of epochal change. We are challenged to be a Church that is outward looking."